First light of the VLT planet finder SPHERE. I. Detection and characterization of the sub-stellar companion GJ 758 B

GJ758 B is a brown dwarf companion to a nearby (15.76 pc) solar-type, metal-rich (M/H = +0.2 dex) main-sequence star (G9V) that was discovered with Subaru/HiCIAO in 2009. From previous studies, it has drawn attention as being the coldest (~600K) companion ever directly imaged around a neighboring star. We present new high-contrast data obtained during the commissioning of the SPHERE instrument at the VLT. The data was obtained in Y-, J-, H-, and Ks-bands with the dual-band imaging (DBI) mode of IRDIS, providing a broad coverage of the full near-infrared (near-IR) range at higher contrast and better spectral sampling than previously reported. In this new set of high-quality data, we report the re-detection of the companion, as well as the first detection of a new candidate closer-in to the star. We use the new 8 photometric points for an extended comparison of GJ758 B with empirical objects and 4 families of atmospheric models. From comparison to empirical object, we estimate a T8 spectral type, but none of the comparison object can accurately represent the observed near-IR fluxes of GJ758 B. From comparison to atmospheric models, we attribute a Teff = 600K $\pm$ 100K, but we find that no atmospheric model can adequately fit all the fluxes of GJ758 B. The photometry of the new candidate companion is broadly consistent with L-type objects, but a second epoch with improved photometry is necessary to clarify its status. The new astrometry of GJ758 B shows a significant proper motion since the last epoch. We use this result to improve the determination of the orbital characteristics using two fitting approaches, Least-Square Monte Carlo and Markov Chain Monte Carlo. Finally, we analyze the sensitivity of our data to additional closer-in companions and reject the possibility of other massive brown dwarf companions down to 4-5 AU. [abridged]Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

How does Brazil measure up? Comparing rankings through the lenses of nation brand indexes

A considerable amount of literature has been published on nation brand and yet not much regarding measurement. The purpose of this paper is to examine nation brand indexes and explore the unbalanced outcomes of a country’s position in these recognized instruments. Although research has been carried out on nation brand, no single study exists comparing a country in four diverse nation brand indexes, which are the reputable ones by Anholt (2007), Fetscherin (2010), Fombrun (2014) and Anholt and Govers (2014). This paper also reflects on the critical studies perspective of the place branding research domain, discussed by Lucarelli and Berg (2011). After a qualitative approach applied to Brazil, it is believed that these indexes mutually support and complement each other - even though they use different approaches, methodologies, samples, and data. Moreover, each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of accuracy and rationality. Findings from this paper’s evaluation may guide nation brand managers, governments, and researchers to recognize that indexes should be taken into account when analysing a nation brand and its complex image. Therefore, this paper contributes to existing knowledge on the critical studies perspective of the contemporary theoretical structure of the place branding research domain by providing a comparative study based on real data-based rankings of nation brand indexes

SPHERE: the exoplanet imager for the Very Large Telescope

Observations of circumstellar environments to look for the direct signal of exoplanets and the scattered light from disks has significant instrumental implications. In the past 15 years, major developments in adaptive optics, coronagraphy, optical manufacturing, wavefront sensing and data processing, together with a consistent global system analysis have enabled a new generation of high-contrast imagers and spectrographs on large ground-based telescopes with much better performance. One of the most productive is the Spectro-Polarimetic High contrast imager for Exoplanets REsearch (SPHERE) designed and built for the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. SPHERE includes an extreme adaptive optics system, a highly stable common path interface, several types of coronagraphs and three science instruments. Two of them, the Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) and the Infra-Red Dual-band Imager and Spectrograph (IRDIS), are designed to efficiently cover the near-infrared (NIR) range in a single observation for efficient young planet search. The third one, ZIMPOL, is designed for visible (VIR) polarimetric observation to look for the reflected light of exoplanets and the light scattered by debris disks. This suite of three science instruments enables to study circumstellar environments at unprecedented angular resolution both in the visible and the near-infrared. In this work, we present the complete instrument and its on-sky performance after 4 years of operations at the VLT.Comment: Final version accepted for publication in A&

Exclusive Leptoproduction of rho^0 Mesons from Hydrogen at Intermediate Virtual Photon Energies

Measurements of the cross section for exclusive virtual-photoproduction of rho^0 mesons from hydrogen are reported. The data were collected by the HERMES experiment using 27.5 GeV positrons incident on a hydrogen gas target in the HERA storage ring. The invariant mass W of the photon-nucleon system ranges from 4.0 to 6.0 GeV, while the negative squared four-momentum Q^2 of the virtual photon varies from 0.7 to 5.0 GeV^2. The present data together with most of the previous data at W > 4 GeV are well described by a model that infers the W-dependence of the cross section from the dependence on the Bjorken scaling variable x of the unpolarized structure function for deep-inelastic scattering. In addition, a model calculation based on Off-Forward Parton Distributions gives a fairly good account of the longitudinal component of the rho^0 production cross section for Q^2 > 2 GeV^2.Comment: 10 pages, 6 embedded figures, LaTeX for SVJour(epj) document class. Revisions: curves added to Fig. 1, several clarifications added to tex

Lack of nAChR Activity Depresses Cochlear Maturation and Up-Regulates GABA System Components: Temporal Profiling of Gene Expression in α9 Null Mice

It has previously been shown that deletion of chrna9, the gene encoding the alpha9 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunit, results in abnormal synaptic terminal structure. Additionally, all nAChR-mediated cochlear activity is lost, as characterized by a failure of the descending efferent system to suppress cochlear responses to sound. In an effort to characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying the structural and functional consequences following loss of alpha9 subunit expression, we performed whole-transcriptome gene expression analyses on cochleae of wild type and alpha9 knockout (alpha9(-/-)) mice during postnatal days spanning critical periods of synapse formation and maturation.Data revealed that loss of alpha9 receptor subunit expression leads to an up-regulation of genes involved in synaptic transmission and ion channel activity. Unexpectedly, loss of alpha9 receptor subunit expression also resulted in an increased expression of genes encoding GABA receptor subunits and the GABA synthetic enzyme, glutamic acid decarboxylase. These data suggest the existence of a previously unrecognized association between the nicotinic cholinergic and GABAergic systems in the cochlea. Computational analyses have highlighted differential expression of several gene sets upon loss of nicotinic cholinergic activity in the cochlea. Time-series analysis of whole transcriptome patterns, represented as self-organizing maps, revealed a disparate pattern of gene expression between alpha9(-/-) and wild type cochleae at the onset of hearing (P13), with knockout samples resembling immature postnatal ages.We have taken a systems biology approach to provide insight into molecular programs influenced by the loss of nicotinic receptor-based cholinergic activity in the cochlea and to identify candidate genes that may be involved in nicotinic cholinergic synapse formation, stabilization or function within the inner ear. Additionally, our data indicate a change in the GABAergic system upon loss of alpha9 nicotinic receptor subunit within the cochlea

Using data-driven rules to predict mortality in severe community acquired pneumonia

Prediction of patient-centered outcomes in hospitals is useful for performance benchmarking, resource allocation, and guidance regarding active treatment and withdrawal of care. Yet, their use by clinicians is limited by the complexity of available tools and amount of data required. We propose to use Disjunctive Normal Forms as a novel approach to predict hospital and 90-day mortality from instance-based patient data, comprising demographic, genetic, and physiologic information in a large cohort of patients admitted with severe community acquired pneumonia. We develop two algorithms to efficiently learn Disjunctive Normal Forms, which yield easy-to-interpret rules that explicitly map data to the outcome of interest. Disjunctive Normal Forms achieve higher prediction performance quality compared to a set of state-of-the-art machine learning models, and unveils insights unavailable with standard methods. Disjunctive Normal Forms constitute an intuitive set of prediction rules that could be easily implemented to predict outcomes and guide criteria-based clinical decision making and clinical trial execution, and thus of greater practical usefulness than currently available prediction tools. The Java implementation of the tool JavaDNF will be publicly available. © 2014 Wu et al

Enablers and Barriers to Implementing ICU Follow-Up Clinics and Peer Support Groups Following Critical Illness: The Thrive Collaboratives

OBJECTIVES: Data are lacking regarding implementation of novel strategies such as follow-up clinics and peer support groups, to reduce the burden of postintensive care syndrome. We sought to discover enablers that helped hospital-based clinicians establish post-ICU clinics and peer support programs, and identify barriers that challenged them. DESIGN: Qualitative inquiry. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research was used to organize and analyze data. SETTING: Two learning collaboratives (ICU follow-up clinics and peer support groups), representing 21 sites, across three continents. SUBJECTS: Clinicians from 21 sites. MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS: Ten enablers and nine barriers to implementation of "ICU follow-up clinics" were described. A key enabler to generate support for clinics was providing insight into the human experience of survivorship, to obtain interest from hospital administrators. Significant barriers included patient and family lack of access to clinics and clinic funding. Nine enablers and five barriers to the implementation of "peer support groups" were identified. Key enablers included developing infrastructure to support successful operationalization of this complex intervention, flexibility about when peer support should be offered, belonging to the international learning collaborative. Significant barriers related to limited attendance by patients and families due to challenges in creating awareness, and uncertainty about who might be appropriate to attend and target in advertising. CONCLUSIONS: Several enablers and barriers to implementing ICU follow-up clinics and peer support groups should be taken into account and leveraged to improve ICU recovery. Among the most important enablers are motivated clinician leaders who persist to find a path forward despite obstacles

An Ambulatory Care Clinic and Community Pharmacy Collaboration to Address Prescription Abandonment

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to evaluate a collaborative workflow aimed at decreasing prescription abandonment. Setting: A federally qualified health center and a 340B contracted grocery store-based community pharmacy. Practice Workflow:  An ambulatory care clinic with an established partnership with a community pharmacy chain identified a need to decrease prescription abandonment rates. A process was developed whereby an ambulatory care pharmacy technician received a report from the pharmacy of prescriptions filled for at least 7 days since the initial fill date and at risk for abandonment at the community pharmacy. The pharmacy technician identified health-system barriers, attempted to remedy any identified barriers, and conducted patient reminder phone calls. Health-system barriers were classified by the following categories: incorrect contact information at the community pharmacy, incorrect 340B copayment, incorrect insurance information at the community pharmacy, and need for prior authorization. Evaluation: A prospective cohort study was conducted from February 2016 to April 2016 in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this workflow. Results: 551 prescriptions and 350 patients were included in this cohort.  Of the 551 prescriptions, 362 had at least one identified barrier that may have led to prescription abandonment. There were 111 health-system identified barriers, and 96 of these barriers were acted upon. Additionally, there were 459 patient identified barriers, and 179 of these barriers were acted upon. When a pharmacy technician was able to identify and act upon at least one barrier, 106 prescriptions (46.9%) were picked-up from the pharmacy. Conclusion: From the information gathered in this quality improvement project, operational changes have been implemented at the ambulatory care clinic and community pharmacy as a means to further decrease modifiable health-system barriers that may lead to prescription abandonment.    Article Type: Clinical Experience &nbsp

Ultrafast electron/energy transfer and intersystem crossing mechanisms in bodipy-porphyrin compounds

Meso-substituted borondipyrromethene (BODIPY)-porphyrin compounds that include free base porphyrin with two different numbers of BODIPY groups (BDP-TTP and 3BDP-TTP) were designed and synthesized to analyze intramolecular energy transfer mechanisms of meso-substituted BODIPY-porphyrin dyads and the effect of the different numbers of BODIPY groups connected to free-base porphyrin on the energy transfer mechanism. Absorption spectra of BODIPY-porphyrin conjugates showed wide absorption features in the visible region, and that is highly valuable to increase light-harvesting efficiency. Fluorescence spectra of the studied compounds proved that BODIPY emission intensity decreased upon the photoexcitation of the BODIPY core, due to the energy transfer from BODIPY unit to porphyrin. In addition, ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy measurements indicated that the energy transfer of the 3BDP-TTP compound (about 3 ps) is faster than the BDP-TTP compound (about 22 ps). Since the BODIPY core directly binds to the porphyrin unit, rapid energy transfer was seen for both compounds. Thus, the energy transfer rate increased with an increasing number of BODIPY moiety connected to free-base porphyrin